From PESWiki

Finally found: the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

Directory of technologies and resources related to harvesting energy from sewage and waste water.

See also Directory:Waste to Energy

Overview

• Video: Waste to Energy -- an Overview (3:01 minutes) - A brief video by PES Network introduces the concept of cost-effectively turning garbage and sewage into energy, either as electricity or as fuel. Addresses methane harvesting, plasma, solar, and catalytic pressureless depolymerization. (PESWiki; Jan. 16, 2008)

Technologies

Commercial

• Energy Products of Idaho (EPI) - World leader in atmospheric fluidized bed combustion technology with more than 81 installations world wide, and over 5 million hours of operating experience. EPI has completed energy systems operating on a wider variety of fuels than any any other fluid bed supplier in the world. Waste input: agriculture, wood, paper, livestock, fossil fuels, RDF (refuse), industrial, sewage. Output: electricity, steam/hot water, thermal fluids, hot gas for dryer.
  

• Capstone MicroTurbine - As waste biodegrades at landfills, sewage treatment plants, livestock farms and food waste processing facilities, methane and other toxic gases are formed. Most sites flare those gases or let them vent into the air. Capstone MicroTurbines are turning that source of pollution into clean, renewable energy, to cut or virtually eliminate your facility’s power bills.
  

• ThermoEnergy - Converting sewage sludge to a renewable high-energy fuel, and enabling the conversion of coal and other hydrocarbon fuels into energy with zero air emissions. The ThermoEnergy Integrated Power System combines the combustion of carbonaceous fuels with recovery of by-products by pressurizing the entire combustion system to enable the use of gas-to-liquid steam-hydroscrubbing.
  

Going Commercial

• China Grants Patent for ThermoFuel Process - ThermoEnergy Corporation was granted a patent for the ThermoFuel Process, that uses heat and pressure to convert sewage sludge into fuel at wastewater treatment plants. Nothing will leave the plant but clean water, high-energy biomass-derived fuel and fertilizer. (Renewable Energy Access; Jul. 20, 2007)
  

• First Biodiesel from Sewage - Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic has produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds. The company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million liters of fuel per year from Blenheim by April. (New Zealand Herald; May 12, 2006) ([1]) (See Slashdot discussion)
  

• Hydrogen Production >
  It's a gas: Human waste being turned into car fuel - The Orange County Sanitation District is about to begin converting human waste into hydrogen fuel in a first-of-its-kind attempt to turn sewage into a salable product. (OC Register; Aug. 14, 2008)
  

• Sewage treatment plants to help generate electricity - California plants hope to generate enough to run their own operations and then some. (FuelCellWorks; Nov. 2, 2004)
  

• LA to turn sludge into electricity - A new plant in Los Angeles, said to be the first of its kind in the U.S., injects material left over from treated wastewater into depleted oil and gas reservoirs underground, where high temperatures and pressure creates methane gas to power fuel cells on the surface. Powering around 3,000 homes, the process will also dissolve carbon dioxide and reduce the amount of treated solid waste. (PhysOrg; Apr. 6, 2007)
  

Research and Development

University of Massachusetts Amherst

• New Microbe Strain Makes More Electricity, Faster - Researchers have coaxed Geobacter, the sediment-loving microbe who produce electric current from mud and wastewater, to evolve a new strain. It dramatically increases power output per cell (8x), overall bulk power, and with a thinner biofilm, cuts the time to produce electricity on the electrode. Now it is plausibe to begin designing microbial fuel cells for a myriad of applications including converting waste water to electricity. (NewsWise; July 29, 2009)
  

Penn State

• Fuel Cell Converts Raw Sewage into Power - Penn State University "microbial fuel cell" treats the water at the same time it generates electricity. (PhysOrg; Oct. 27, 2004)
  

• Penn State > Microbial Fuel Cells Produce Power by Cleaning Domestic Wastewater - boosts output six times while reducing costs by two thirds. (WorldChanging.com; June 23, 2004)
  

• Microbial fuel cell: high yield hydrogen source and wastewater cleaner - Using a new electrically-assisted microbial fuel cell (MFC) that does not require oxygen, Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed the first process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone. (PhysOrg; April 22, 2005)
  

Urine

• Your Car and Home Could Soon Be Powered By Urine - The Ohio University scientists who developed the urine technology found that attaching hydrogen to nitrogen in urine allowed it to be stored without the strict requirements of ordinary hydrogen, and allowed it to be released with less electricity (0.037 volts versus 1.23 volts needed for water). (Mercola; July 28, 2009)
  

• Producing hydrogen from urine - You do two things at motorway services: fill up one tank and empty another. US chemists have combined refuelling your car and relieving yourself by creating a new catalyst that can extract hydrogen from urine. (PhysOrg; July 3, 2009)
  

Other Research

• Bio-Petrol.com - Developing a process of low temperature thermochemical conversion of municipal sewage sludge into oil. It can also process agri-wastes, bagasse, pulp and paper residues, tannery sludge and other end-of-life products such as plastics, tires and the organics in municipal solid waste.
  

• Ray of light for water industry - University of Aberdeen scientists developing new technology that uses sunlight to treat dirty water and create electricity simultaneously. Three industrial partners develop novel technology for breaking up pollutants found in all types of water supplies. (PhysOrg; UK; April 28, 2005)
  

• Japanese Power Plant Fueled with Sewage Certified Efficient, Grid-Safe and Ultra-Clean - Independent Japanese industry group validates Direct FuelCell use in wastewater treatment; certification expected to streamline process of marketing future DFC sales in Japan. (PESN; Mar. 29, 2006)
  

• Pollution-Eating Bacteria Produce Electricity - "These bacteria can convert a large number of different food sources into electricity. The technology could be used to assist in the reclamation of wastewaters, thereby resulting in the removal of waste and generation of electricity." (PhysOrg; June 7, 2005)
  

• University of Warwick Converting Sewage Waste into Power - Dr. Ashok Bhattacharya and his team have cracked the problem of how to extract very pure levels of hydrogen from wet bio-matter, such as sewage or paper mill waste using a nanocrystalline catalyst. (The Hindu; May 30, 2004)
  

• Wastewater: Energy of the future? - Professor Jurg Keller at Australia's University of Queensland said he and his colleagues have discovered how to turn wastewater into electricity. (PhysOrg; Nov. 2005)
  

Tire vaporizer

• Creative Energy Systems - Sewage and Landfill Clean-up with Energy Production; isolation of elements for recycling. Super-clean tire burner prototype operated 1 year. Full municipal waste and sewage to energy system has not yet to be assembled. Includes plasma technology.
  

Resources

• Zip Project - Zero Impact Platform project was created to handle waste cycle and water cycle management with clean, renewable technologies available, as well as to support research and development into the same. (PESWiki; Aug. 5, 2005)
  

See also

GENERAL W2E

• Directory:Waste to Energy
• Directory:Thermal Electric - e.g. waste heat

PREVENTION OF WASTE

• Directory:Energy Efficiency
• Directory:Conservation
• Directory:Recycling
• Directory:Home Generation:Gray Water Recycling
• Directory:Nuclear Remediation

TYPES OF WASTE-TO-ENERGY

• Directory:Plasma
• Directory:Energy from Sewage
• Directory:Plastic and Energy
• Directory:Biomass
• Directory:Biodiesel from Algae Oil
• Directory:Non-Fossil Oil
• Directory:Refinery Flaring Recovery

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